Happy Thanksgiving!

We traveled to my parents house on Thanksgiving Day for our traditional Thanksgiving dinner made by my Mom with all my favorites - turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, rolls, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and apple pie. We got to spend the day with Ma, Pa, and Uncle Mike and had a great time and lots of yummy food! It was a nice, relaxing day.

We also enjoyed a second Thanksgiving dinner at our house on Sunday with Jason's family. Grandma Luster, Grammie and Grandpa Inman, Aunt Jessica, cousin Michael, Aunt Casey, and Uncle Carey all came over to share a pot luck Thanksgiving. We had ham, corn casserole, green bean casserole, seven layer salad, cheesy potatoes, rolls, pumpkin pie, coconut cream pie, custard pie, and an assortment of cheesecake. It was another fun time!

We're very thankful for our families! :)

Gold Belt

Kyle had his first belt test in karate tonight. He has now moved from a white belt to a gold belt - yay Kyle! He had to do a series of punches and kicks, as well as break a board with a stomp kick. He did a great job and is very excited about his gold belt! We took him out for a celebratory dinner at McDonald's (his choice) and he kept saying "I'm so happy I'm a gold belt and I'm only 4 1/2!" Due to a camera "issue" we do not have a video of him breaking his board, but he did get to bring his board pieces home and we have some other cute videos and pictures to share. The last picture is of Kyle and his teacher, Mr. Nick.

Max 2 years

Max had his 2 year check up last week and he is now 24 lbs. and 34 1/2 inches tall. At age 2 Kyle was 22 lbs. and 32 3/4 inches, so it looks like Max is going to be our "big" guy. :) He's 10th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height. Kyle wasn't even on the charts for either. Hopefully Kyle will hit a big growth spurt at some point or else I don't think he'll be too happy if his little brother gets bigger than him. :) Overall he's doing well and in good health. He had some normal bloodwork done which all came back normal. Everything looks good! The only concern is that he is not drinking milk anymore since we finally stopped giving him a bottle. He refuses it out of a cup. The good news is he does LOVE yogurt now (a fairly new development) and he eats cheese. For now he's getting his calcium that way, but if he still won't drink the milk after a couple months we'll have to start him on a calcium supplement, which apparenly do exist for young children, but are just harder to find. It's amazing what a difference six months can make. At his 18 month appointment he wasn't walking or talking and now he doesn't stop running or talking! It's hard to remember when he wasn't like this because he's such a little ball of energy and that's what I think of when I think of Max. He's such a curious, passionate(in the good and the bad), enthusiastic little guy! As challenging as he can be, it's a fun age and an added bonus is that he now sleeps really well - he wears himself out!!

Kyle's new glasses

Kyle has a vision and hearing screening done at his school and we discovered, much to our surprise, that he failed his vision screening. We took him to the pediatrician to double check the results and he was then referred to a pediatric eye doctor. We never noticed the problem because he can see perfectly fine out of his left eye 20/20, however his right eye is 20/60. When the left eye was covered up during the eye test he got very frustrated that everything looked blurry. Apparently this is a problem that can possibly be corrected. Therefore he is now wearing glasses to help strengthen his right eye since it hasn't been developing properly or working as hard as his left. He will have a follow up appointment in a month in order to see if there is any change. If not, he may also have to "patch" the good eye for 2 hours a day to get that other eye working harder! He's very excited about his new glasses! He really wanted orange, but they didn't have that color frame, so he decided on a blue pair. His little face was so cute when he saw himself in the mirror with them on for the first time - it just lit up with a huge smile! He's been taking care of them well so far and leaves them on all the time except when he sleeps.

Max's 2nd Birthday

Max is 2 today!!! We celebrated his birthday with a family party yesterday. Ma, Pa, Grandma and Grandpa Luster, cousin Michael, Grandma and Grandpa Inman, Uncle Mike, and Uncle Jonathan all came to visit to help us celebrate. Uncle Carey and Aunt Casey couldn't make it then, but they came up today for a leftover birthday dinner and to visit with us and the boys. It was a fun weekend and Max really seemed to enjoy himself. Kyle made out pretty well also as brother of the birthday boy, so they both have lots of new, fun toys! The theme was Cars since Max is super into cars these days. He was in awe when he saw the balloons and streamers and loved that he got to eat lunch on a Cars plate and had a Cars cake with cars that he could take off and actually play with when he was done eating. Max also loves Barney so we got him a stuffed Barney that sings the "I love you" song, which he can sing himself and it's so cute!! He really likes it and is giving Barney a hug in the first picture at the top. Here is a link to more pictures of Max's fun birthday weekend!

Trick or Treating

Kyle was invited to a Halloween party at his friend, Matthew's house, on Halloween night. The kids all wore their costumes, played, went trick or treating in his neighborhood, and had dinner. Kyle LOVED his first time trick or treating. In the past we always just did the Harvest Festival which is usually on October 31st, but since it was on the 30th this year it gave Kyle the opportunity to actually go door to door trick or treating. He was very polite and always remembered to say thank you. The kids RAN from house to house and he was so genuinely thrilled after each new candy that was added to his pumpkin bucket and couldn't wait to tell me what he had gotten!